The San Diego Chargers vs. The Denver Broncos at Sports Authority Field in Denver. Thomas Keiser intercepts in the 4th quarter allowing the Chargers to score again with a field goal making the final score 27-20.
— Sean M. Haffey

The San Diego Chargers vs. The Denver Broncos at Sports Authority Field in Denver. Thomas Keiser intercepts in the 4th quarter allowing the Chargers to score again with a field goal making the final score 27-20.
— Sean M. Haffey

The San Diego Chargers vs. The Denver Broncos at Sports Authority Field in Denver. Thomas Keiser intercepts in the 4th quarter allowing the Chargers to score again with a field goal making the final score 27-20.
— Sean M. Haffey

The San Diego Chargers vs. The Denver Broncos at Sports Authority Field in Denver. There were Charger fans although few and far between at the game to witness the 27-20 win over the Broncos.
— Sean M. Haffey

Denver didn’t win this game either, in large part because its former offensive coordinator is now the Chargers’ head coach, and he empowered his new, young, beaten down team from the start to believe it could beat anyone.

Not everything went right for the Chargers in their 27-20 victory, it just seemed that way, so complete in the end was the Chargers’ domination, as they held the ball for almost 39 of the game’s 60 minutes, played their best defensive game and continued to smother on special teams.

“A great team win,” McCoy said, praising not only the players for the execution but naming his three coordinators and giving specifics about their preparation.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it was. But McCoy says that all the time.

He also says this: “They bought in from Day One.”

He said it again Thursday night, and that is where much of the focus should lie in the aftermath of a victory over the AFC’s likely No. 1 seed that got the Chargers to 7-7 and kept them alive in the playoff race.

“He’s straightforward, he demands a lot, he’s aggressive-minded,” center Nick Hardwick said in a jubilant visitors’ locker room at Sports Authority Field. “He’s a hell of a leader.”

Greeting McCoy on Thursday morning was a column on the front of the Denver Post sports section, with a tease on A1, that said the Broncos were better off without McCoy. It criticized his play-calling, referring to him as milquetoast.

(Forget that the column erroneously accused McCoy of guaranteeing a victory in this game. Turns out that anyone who predicted the Chargers would win is a genius. Ahem.)

Every member of the organization I asked, from players to the owner, said they had read the column. Their thoughts were generally unprintable. McCoy said he’d heard about it.

Look, we’ve been critical of McCoy at times in San Diego, including for some conservative leanings. In fact, since he has referred so often to the media second-guessing him, I told him after the game that I first-guessed the decision to punt from the 37-yard line with just under six minutes left. I can’t repeat his response, since it was not on the record, but it showed some personality that had not been on display before.

But through the criticism, you always had to give McCoy credit for infusing a sense of purpose into a team full of young players who had not yet figured out how to play and veterans who had lost their way.

“He had a plan early on,” Philip Rivers said Thursday night. “Veteran players can see through it if the guy is feeling his way around. He had a definite plan. So whether we always agreed with every little thing, it was like, ‘Well, we don’t have a choice but to buy in.’ ”